The mayor of Los Angeles has announced that a curfew will be in force overnight, as officials attempt to “stop the vandalism and stop the looting”.

Karen Bass says the restrictions will be in force in downtown areas of the city from 8pm to 6am local time (4am to 2pm UK time) – and will likely be repeated in the coming days.

She confirmed that a local emergency had been declared as “we reached a tipping point”, with 23 businesses looted on Monday night.

Ms Bass said “graffiti is everywhere”, with “significant damage” to properties as a result of the protests.

Jim McDonnell, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, described the curfew as a “necessary measure to protect lives” after “unlawful and dangerous behaviour” had been escalating in the last few days.

On Tuesday alone, 197 arrests were made by the force, and he warned anyone violating the curfew without a valid reason would be detained.

Residents, people who are homeless, those travelling to and from work, credited media as well as public safety and emergency personnel, will be exempt from the curfew, according to Mr McDonnell.

The curfew covers a one square mile (2.59 square kilometre) section of downtown LA that includes the area where protests have happened since Friday. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (2,295 square kilometres).

The protests are in response to raids carried out by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).

US President Donald Trump has activated 4,000 National Guard troops – the federal reserve force – to protect ICE officers carrying out raids as well as federal buildings in LA, despite objections by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who called the deployments unnecessary, illegal and politically motivated.

Mr Trump also sent 700 Marines, who are expected to start operating in the LA area on Wednesday, according to the US Northern Command.

Read more from Sky News:
Eyewitness: Furious immigrants vow to ‘defend’ LA
What we know about the LA immigration raids and protests
Explainer: Who is Gavin Newsom?

State officials said Mr Trump’s response was an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations, with California senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla saying the domestic mobilisation of active-duty military personnel should only happen “during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them”.

Mr Trump defended his decision in a speech to soldiers at the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on Tuesday, saying his administration would “liberate Los Angeles”.

“Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness,” Mr Trump said.

“What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags.”

Gavin Newsom launched a blistering response in an address on Tuesday evening, saying the deployment of the National Guard without consulting Californian officials was a “brazen abuse of power by a sitting president”.

He said it “enflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk”.

“That’s when the downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder – and the president, he did it on purpose,” Mr Newsom said.

The governor accused Mr Trump of choosing escalation and “theatrics over public safety”, as the situation was “winding down” before the president deployed the federal reserve force.

Mr Newsom added: “When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation.

“This is about all of us, this is about you. California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here; other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes.”

Homeland Security said on Monday that ICE had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day recently, which significantly exceeds the 311 daily average in the fiscal year 2024 under former president Joe Biden.

The protests over the immigration raids have started to spread across the US, with demonstrations in cities like Seattle, Austin, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

At least 36 people were killed and 208 wounded when Israeli forces fired towards crowds near a food distribution centre in Gaza on Tuesday morning, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Footage supplied to Sky News shows people shouting and screaming as they flee explosions in the distance.

Dead and wounded people can be seen being carried away from the scene while thick smoke billows into the air.

The incident is the latest in a series of reports of Palestinians being killed by Israeli gunfire near one of the distribution centres operated by a new organisation which is permitted by the IDF to hand out aid in the territory.

One man seen in the footage says: “We want to live, we want to eat. We have children and wives. We want to live in our homes. Three years of war, bodies ripped apart, all this, for some flour.”

Humanitarian aid workers and experts have warned Israel’s blockade of Gaza and its military campaign has pushed the besieged enclave to the brink of famine.

Around 160 people have been killed in shootings near aid sites run by the new Israel and US-backed organisation, the health ministry has said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the sites, said there has been no violence in or around the distribution centres themselves.

However, it has warned people to stay on designated access routes and paused delivery last week while it held talks with Israel’s military on improving safety.

Israel’s military said in a statement its forces fired warning shots at suspects who were advancing and posed a threat to troops “despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone”.

It said it was aware of reports several people had been injured but its initial inquiry suggests the number “does not align with the information held” by the Israeli military.

“The warning shots were fired hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site, prior to its opening hours and toward the suspects who posed a threat to the troops,” it said, adding that the details are under review.

The government media office of Hamas said: “In a new crime added to the bloody record of the ‘Israeli’ occupation, the number of victims of the ‘Israeli-American aid distribution centres’ since Tuesday morning rose to 36 martyrs and more than 208 injuries, bringing the total number of victims of the ‘Israeli-American aid distribution centres’ to 163 martyrs and 1,495 injuries, all of whom are starving civilians seeking a living under siege and starvation.”

Read more:
Sanctioning of ministers adds to Israel’s growing ostracisation over Gaza and West Bank

Israeli government ministers sanctioned

It comes as the UK government sanctioned two Israeli government ministers due to their “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian civilians”, the Foreign Office said.

The UK imposed sanctions on Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich alongside Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.

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They are being sanctioned in their personal capacities and are now subject to a freeze on UK assets and director disqualifications, and banned from entering the country.

The sanctions were criticised by US secretary of state Marco Rubio who said on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war.”

Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of ‘illegal act’

Earlier in the day Greta Thunberg accused Israel of committing “an illegal act” after the Gaza-bound aid boat she was on was seized by the country’s military and she was deported to France.

Students and adults are among 10 victims who were killed after a gunman opened fire at a secondary school in the Austrian city of Graz.

Interior minister Gerhard Karner said earlier that a further 12 people were injured in the shooting at the BORG Dreierschützengasse high school in Austria’s second-biggest city.

However Mr Karner gave the figure before it was confirmed that a person in hospital with life-threatening injuries had become the 10th person to die. It is not clear if this reduces the number of those injured to 11.

The interior minister also said the suspect was a former pupil of the school who didn’t finish his studies.

Police have said the 21-year-old Austrian gunman was found dead in the toilets of the school after the shootings and was operating alone.

As it happened: 10 killed in Austria school shooting

Authorities say he had two weapons, reported to be a shotgun and a pistol, which he appeared to have owned legally.

Police have said they did not have information about his possible motive.

Meanwhile, investigators have found a farewell letter at the house of the suspect, the Kronen newspaper in Austria reports.

Footage shared online revealed how gunshots and screaming could be heard after the gunman entered the school before opening fire.

French education minister Elisabeth Borne has said that one of those who died was a “young fellow citizen” of France.

It came as the mother of a child who survived the shooting retold the distressing moment she received a phone call from her son.

“My son called me to say he was in school and that he was being shot and that he thought he was going to die,” she said.

“I’ve only found out now, two hours later, that he’s still alive.”

Read more:
What we know about the shooting so far

Special forces were among those sent to the school, just under a mile from Graz’s historic centre, after a call at 10am local time (9am UK time).

Around an hour and half later, police wrote on X that the school had been evacuated and everyone had been taken to a safe meeting point.

Police deployed in large numbers, with emergency vehicles guarding the area around the school and with at least one police helicopter flying above.

Graz, Austria’s second-biggest city, is located in the southeast of the country and about 300,000 live there.

A ‘dark day’

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said there would be three days of national mourning, with the Austrian flag lowered to half-mast and a national minute of mourning at 10am on Wednesday (9am BST).

He said that it was “a dark day in the history of our country”.

President Alexander Van der Bellen said that “this horror cannot be captured in words”.

“These were young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. A teacher who accompanied them on their way,” he said.

Well-wishers later lit candles and placed them in the main square in Graz city centre on Tuesday night as a tribute to the shooting victims.

People were seen quietly reflecting as the city tried to come to terms with the deadly attack.

The school where the attack took place had earlier posted a message on Instagram following the tragedy.

The message is written in German, the official language of Austria, and translates in English to: “It was a really terrible day that deeply impacted and affected us all.

“Let us continue to stand together as a school community and support one another.

“Your teachers and your principal.”